Margaret Thatcher | 1925 - 2013

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher waves to supporters from Conservative Party headquarters in London after claiming victory in Britain's general election in June 1987.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher waves to supporters from Conservative Party headquarters in London after claiming victory in Britain's general election in June 1987. (Gerald Penny / Associated Press)

Margaret Thatcher, a grocer's daughter who punched through an old-boy political network to become Britain's first female prime minister, stamping her personality indelibly on the nation and pursuing policies that reverberated decades later, has died. She was 87.